Motor vehicle occupants are presently protected against injury in a collision by seat belts, energy management materials and air bag systems. The air bag systems that are currently available typically have a driver-side air bag that is deployed from the steering wheel and a separate passenger-side air bag that is deployed from the instrument panel. These dual air bags are capable of providing good protection against injury from the instrument panel, steering wheel and windshield in front and rear collisions but are restricted because of their deployment location in protecting against head injury on side impacts and against head injury by upper portions of the vehicle structure in front, side and rear collisions. Protection with respect to the head of the occupant and more particularly with respect to those from side impacts has proved to be a problem in that the necessary air bag deployment must occur in the limited space between the head of the occupant and the adjacent interior vehicle side structure and door including side window. Various proposals have been made to protect against injury on side impacts such as by providing air bags that deploy from the doors as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,518, that deploy from the seats as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,931 and French Patent No. 2,667,831, and that deploy from the ceiling and side pillars as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,961 and German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,041,741. It has also been proposed to deploy an air bag arrangement from the ceiling of the passenger compartment that completely surrounds an individual occupant including the seat as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,795,412.
In the above air bag systems, those that use only one air bag to provide protection in both front and side impacts employ a relatively complicated air bag construction that is quite costly compared to the presently used driver-side and passenger-side air bags that deploy directly toward the front of the driver and passenger. And those that require separate air bags for protecting against both front and side impact are also quite costly in comparison. Motor vehicle air bag systems are generally an option for the buyer and there is a substantial on going effort by the automobile manufacturers and others to add side impact protection and enhanced head protection in an air bag system without dramatically adding to the cost of the present systems.